Billy Joel Cancels Memoir

American singer songwriter Billy Joel has cancelled the release of The Book of Joel, a book featuring his memoirs. The singer who has a string of hits, albums and awards has backed out of the contract to publish his memoirs, although the book is written and edited and is ready for printing. He states that his music is the way he expresses his past. "It took working on writing a book to make me realize that I'm not all that interested in talking about the past, and that the best expression of my life and its ups and downs has been and remains my music," Joel said in a statement.

Though the contract is now cancelled some copies of The Book of Joel did make the print run, and have been sent to a few select members of the press.

HarperCollins acquired the project for around $3,000,000 in 2008. Though no details are yet to emerge, it is believed that Billy Joel will return his advance that he received to write hs memoirs.

Billy Joels publicist Claire Mercuri told Rolling Stone Magazine, "It was a decision that Billy made and he no longer wanted to move forward with it. I felt he feels that his lyrics in the songs and his music really speaks about his life better than anything else."

Billy Joel has demonstrated true artist integrity by backing out of a lucrative contract for artist reasons and, for simply not being comfortable with releasing material that he feels is unnecessary.